Finance ministers from the 15 nations sharing the euro have dropped a 2010 deadline for balancing their budgets, in the face of a severe economic downturn, their chairman Jean-Claude Juncker said Monday.

Juncker told journalists that the deadline, which was agreed under much rosier economic conditions in April last year, `should be revised` in light of the severe downturn that has taken hold in the eurozone.

`We have agreed between us that the decisions that we took in April 2007 ... should be revised and that the medium term objectives must be met by member states on a case-by-case basis at dates that will pushed back,` Juncker said.